The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention(s). It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art, or material, to the presently described or claimed inventions, or that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of notification devices and more specifically relates to a security system for use with a child's car seat to provide an audible alert to consumers in the event they have inadvertently left a child in a motor vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many people travel between locations using a vehicle. Children must often be buckled into car seats for safety during excursions. On hectic and busy days, it can be easy for adults to experience momentary confusion and lapses in judgment. Juggling the demands of career and family, parents can be particularly susceptible to this, despite their best intentions and diligence. Rushing from work to collect children from school or day care, a parent may have to complete a number of other errands before finally reaching home, such as making a bank deposit or picking up a few items from the market for dinner. In a hurry, the parent may consider it safe to leave a child in the car while quickly running into the establishment, or they may be so harried that they leave the child behind without realizing they have done so. This is undesirable and unsafe.
Unfortunately, leaving a child alone in a car, even for a short period of time, can lead to tragic circumstances, especially on hot days. As disturbing as the thought may be, the facts are indisputable. All it takes is a few minutes for the temperature inside a car, even with the windows ‘cracked’, to rise to dangerous levels. According to experts, even on a mild day at 73 degrees outside, a vehicle's interior can heat up to 100 degrees in 10 minutes, and to 120 in just 30 minutes. As the outdoor temperature rises, so does the heat buildup inside a vehicle. At 90 degrees outside, the interior of a vehicle can heat up to 160 degrees within several minutes. Children's developing respiratory system makes them particularly vulnerable to heat exhaustion. As the vehicle's inside temperature rises, their body temperatures rise. Infants tend to heat up very quickly, rapidly approaching the temperature of their environment. Unfortunately, 32 children nationally died last year as a result of having been left alone in motor vehicles. A solution to prevent such occurrences is desirable.
Various attempts have been made to solve the above-mentioned problems such as those found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,170,401 to Charles J. Cole; U.S. Pat. No. 7,250,869 to Le'Roychelle Davis; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,340 to Marc A. Rossil. This art is representative of car seats with alarms. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed.
Ideally, a car seat notification device should be user-friendly and, yet would operate reliably and be manufactured at a modest expense. Thus, a need exists for a reliable car seat alarm system to provide an audible alert to consumers in the event they have inadvertently left a child in a motor vehicle, enabling them to quickly retrieve the child or infant and prevent tragic scenarios that can result when a child is left unattended in a vehicle and to avoid the above-mentioned problems.